Numerical modeling of steady burning characteristics of spherical ethanol particles in a spray environment

Vaibhav Kumar Sahu, Vasudevan Raghavan, Daniel N. Pope, George Gogos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

A numerical study of steady burning of spherical ethanol particles in a spray environment is presented. A spray environment is modeled as a high temperature oxidizer stream where the major products of combustion such as carbon dioxide and water vapor will be present along with reduced amounts of oxygen and nitrogen. The numerical model, which employs variable thermophysical properties, a global single-step reaction mechanism, and an optically thin radiation model, has been first validated against published experimental results for quasi-steady combustion of spherical ethanol particles. The validated model has been employed to predict the burning behavior of the ethanol particle in high temperature modified oxidizer environment. Results show that based on the amount of oxygen present in the oxidizer the burning rate constant is affected. The ambient temperature affects the burning rate constant only after a sufficient decrease in the oxygen content occurs. In pure air stream, ambient temperature variation does not affect the evaporation constant. Results in terms of burning rates, maximum temperature around the particle, and the evaporation rate constants are presented for all the cases. The variation of normalized Damkhler number is also presented to show the cases where combustion or pure evaporation would occur.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number094502
JournalJournal of Heat Transfer
Volume133
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011

Keywords

  • burning rate
  • ethanol
  • evaporation rate constant
  • optically thin radiation model
  • single-step reaction kinetics
  • spray combustion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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